Worth
by colefallow
Summary: Everyone needs a job. More often than not, they don't go as planned.
1. Chapter 1

Rain hammered at Serenity. Wind whipped it about, slapping at odd angles and echoing across the landing pad.

Mal sat quietly on a cargo container, feet dangling, mug of tea in hand, back end of the ship wide open so he could listen to the storm.

It was a good day. A quiet day. At least...it had been. He could only hope about the remainder of it.

A dark shape appeared at the far end of the dock, shuffling closer as it was pelted with the rain. Mal checked the time.

"You were nearly late," he said once the figure's foot hit the ramp.

Simon threw back the hood to his jacket and fixed the Captain with a glare. He was drenched, head to toe. He may as well not have worn a jacket. Mal sipped his tea.

"The checkups are done," Simon said as he pushed his soaking hair out of his face. "Vaccines administered, no issues, one girl needs a tooth extraction but I'm not a dentist." He shook out his hands, realized his sleeves were dripping, and went about peeling off some of his useless layers. Mal only nodded, kicking his feet occasionally.

"You game for makin' this a regular gig?"

"What, this place specifically?" Simon tossed his jacket onto a crate and started picking at the buttons of his vest. Mal shook his head.

"Proprietor's got a bunch of these farms, ain't as productive as they could be with healthy folk workin' 'em. Figured you'd want a chance to use all that fancy schooling. Ain't gonna be as exciting as your core hospitals, but it's somethin'."

Simon stilled and stared at the wall for a moment. Looked thoughtful. Maybe even thrown by the idea of a routine. Mal sipped his tea again.

"You don't think it would..." Simon looked down then, now shucking his vest. Mal already knew the end of that sentence.

"Don't go makin' a name for yourself all over again, should be fine." Simon stared at Mal's hands as he picked at the first few buttons of his white shirt, now soaked and plastered to his skin.

"I'll do it," he said easily as he finally met the Captain's eye. Mal smiled.

"Thought you might."

Carefully he reached behind him and retrieved a second piping hot mug of tea. Simon looked on the verge of tears when Mal extended it to him. With a careful shimmy, Simon sat next to the Captain, still dripping, but happy. They sat in silence as they sipped their tea and watched the storm blow over.


	2. Chapter 2

Two jobs. Same planet. Any other place, Mal might have counted them lucky.

But it was Grant Barlowe's town. And while he and Mal had been in the war together, they hadn't exactly ever agreed on anything else.

He was just glad that one of the jobs was Simon's usual gig, checkups and vaccinations for farm workers. That didn't necessarily mean it would go smooth, though.

Jayne had laid out his whole arsenal in the mess nook, carefully cleaning each piece of each gun or knife more thoroughly than he'd likely ever cleaned his own self. Mal sat at the head of the table, 'fixing' an old handgun he'd had tucked away, but far more focused on the jobs ahead.

Or...he wanted to be.

People filtered in and out of the mess, chattering about their roles in the plan (blow out the back of a poorly built and even more poorly guarded warehouse of valuable farming equipment destined for shipment and ship it somewhere else entirely), arguing about logistics, and ironing out the details. His crew knew what they were doing, and he trusted them to do it.

And then there was Simon.

Sitting at the table, yogurt cup in one hand and spoon in the other, hunched over a tablet as he read some medical journal or some such.

If only that was all he was doing.

The boy's brows rose as he lifted a spoonful to his lips. His pink tongue peeked out, lingering between soft parted lips, before it finally darted into the pale lump on his spoon, and retreated with only a small coating of his treat and no concept of how indecent the whole thing looked. Mal could only blink. He shifted now, scrolled a bit on the tablet, and then hunkered back down. He distractedly bumped the yogurt to his mouth, covering his lips in the sticky substance, and really that was too much. He had the audacity to look surprised, momentarily pulled from his reading, but he took his sweet time to carefully swipe his tongue over the swell of his lips, before licking at the edges of his spoon.

Mal suddenly realized he'd been holding the slide to his gun in one hand and a rag in the other for a good chunk of time, but hadn't done anything in particular with either item.

"He does that," River finally piped up, and Mal could've jumped out of his skin when he realized she was sitting right next to him. Simon's confused gaze just slowly drifted up to her, because of course he was used to it.

She knew what he'd been looking at, though, and the thought made Mal uncharacteristically sheepish.

"It's disgusting." With that, she left toward the engine room in a huff. Simon watched her go, brows furrowed, and Mal was thankful the boy was distracted enough not to notice how uncomfortable he'd grown. Or the flush he could feel creeping up from under his collar.

Mal silently scrubbed at imagined dirt and resolutely ignored everything else when Simon finally turned his confused gaze on the Captain. With a shake of his head he returned to his tablet and snack, and Mal pretended to keep his eyes on his gun.


End file.
